Editorial: Of Thin Mints and misguided connections

Feb. 22, 2012

By The Indianapolis Star

Here are a couple of good takeaways from an otherwise embarrassing episode at the Statehouse this week, with a lawmaker dragging the Girl Scouts into a fabricated controversy that somehow made Thin Mints a tool for a radical front.

One: At least Rep. Bob Morris, R-Fort Wayne, isn't one of ours - as in a Greater Lafayette "ours."

Two: The General Assembly, recognizing ridiculous statements from one of its own, moved swiftly to marginalize Morris' statements in a way that left him standing alone - and rightly so.

This week's ultra-conservative show at the Statehouse had Morris taking on the Girl Scouts as he explained to fellow lawmakers why he was the only one in the Indiana House to vote against a resolution honoring the organization's 100th anniversary. He wrote to other lawmakers that, based on a little Internet searching he did, Girl Scout leaders were bent on indoctrinating girls with some sort of Planned Parenthood reality.

Using his Wiki-lite Web skills, he spilled quite a bit about lesbians, feminists and Communists before hitting his conclusion: The Girl Scouts don't say anything about abortion. That means the organization must be for it. And by extension, the Girl Scouts must be in league with Planned Parenthood.

That, friends, is practically a scientific proof.

There's so much you could say right here - and many have. But add this up: The misinformation about the Girl Scouts plus the wild assumptions about the reach of Planned Parenthood plus the yukking it up over boxes of Thin Mints on the Indiana House floor plus another day of distractions, all over an otherwise innocuous resolution meant to honor a century with an organization that has been home to hundreds of thousands of Hoosier girls.

Sum it. Then multiply it by two. By three, if you want.

And the equation still isn't greater than this: If the research done by Miller and the logic that flow in its wake on this are what pass for adequate by our legislators - even a tiny slice of those who are actually compelled to pass laws for this state - we're in serious trouble.